The present invention relates to methods for use in data delivery and communications systems, and to systems effecting the same and comprising one or a plurality of mobile data processing or communications devices interacting with one or several groups or clusters of networked data delivery and/or transmission beacons.
An example of a mobile data processing device interacting with a fixed device is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,861 which describes the use of wireless telephones with a beacon in the form of an electronic advertisement billboard. The user of a wireless telephone obtains the telephone number of a vendor by activating his/her wireless telephone to transmit a prompt signal to an active advertisement source and to receive from the advertisement source a response signal containing the telephone number of the advertising vendor. The telephone number can then be used to automatically place a call to that vendor via the public switched telephone network. Alternatively, the telephone number can be stored for use later on. This arrangement can be used to place a call to a vendor without having to either memorise the telephone number or to write it down. The signals between the billboard and the caller can be transmitted as modulated infrared (IR) signals.
It will be recognised that an important requirement for such mobile data processing or communications devices is that they quickly and efficiently gather data from beacons such that the user is not required to undertake actions such as staying close to a beacon whilst contact is established between portable device and beacon, nor having to specifically initiate interaction (as is the case with the above-mentioned system in U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,861).
As is described in our pending United Kingdom patent application no. 0020101.2 (PHGB000112), the existing methodology for implementing a radio beacon is to perform a two-step connection process, commencing with the discovery of devices followed by the actual transmission of the information using the same device. Bluetooth, one of the technologies/protocols available for building such systems, requires that the discovery phase is completed before a transmission can take place. When used in a dynamic mobile environment, the time this process takes can often be longer than the actual time the device is in range, causing the information not to reach the client.
Due to the mobility of the clients and the typically small range of beacons, data delivery systems will typically be provided via a networked cluster (or several clusters) of beacons. In consequence, it is not just the time taken for a transaction to be performed that is important since there is still the likelihood that the client will be out of range of a given beacon and will not have received all the service information.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved system for the delivery of data via beacons.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for enabling the user of a mobile data processing device to perform a service interaction with a networked arrangement of beacons, said arrangement being subdivided into respective clusters of beacons, with a cluster of beacon devices containing a first and plural second beacon devices capable of wireless message transmission, wherein:
a first beacon of a cluster broadcasts a series of inquiry messages according to a first communications protocol, and including respective identifiers for the beacon and cluster;
the users mobile device, on detecting such inquiry messages, replies with an identifier for the mobile device, together with message reason data;
the first beacon device transmits a received identifier and message reason data to a selected second beacon device; and
the selected second beacon and mobile device perform a service interaction based at least partly on the message reason data, including establishing a communications link for performance of said service interaction when indicated by the message reason data.
Also in accordance with the present invention there is provided a data transmission system comprising a plurality of networked beacon devices, said devices being subdivided into respective clusters of beacons, with a cluster containing a first and two or more second beacon devices capable of wireless message transmission, and at least one mobile device capable of receiving such message transmissions, wherein said first beacon is arranged to broadcast a series of inquiry messages according to a first communications protocol, and including respective identifiers for the beacon and cluster, wherein said at least one mobile device is arranged to detect such inquiry messages and reply with an identifier for the mobile device and message reason data, wherein said first beacon device is arranged to transmit a received identifier and message reason data to a selected one of said two or more second beacon devices, and wherein said selected second beacon and mobile device are configured to perform a service interaction based at least partly on the message reason data, including establishing a communications link for performance of said service interaction when indicated by the message reason data.
Further features and advantages of the present invention are also recited in the attached claims, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference and to which the reader is now directed, or will become apparent from reading of the following description of embodiments of the invention.